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Pentagon's lesson learned from Ramadi: patience

WASHINGTON — Since it was taken over by Islamic State fighters last May, the Iraqi city of Ramadi has been a highly-charged symbol of unsuccessful United States involvement in the country. Not only is it the capital of Iraq’s largest province, but more than 1,000 American troops also died fighting Al Qaeda in the area between 2004 and 2007.

Now Ramadi has fallen once again – this time to Iraqi government forces. The operation was the first test of the newly US-retrained Iraqi forces, and it is being cautiously hailed as a victory, though about 30 percent of the city is not yet under government control.